Keokuk Jr.

Keokuk Jr.

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Description (Brief)
A half-length daguerreotype portrait of Native American man wearing head-dress with feathers, necklaces and bangles. He is bare-chested and has stripes painted on arms and chest, and holds arrows. The ornaments are hand-tinted blue & gold. This photograph is one of a series a of portrait daguerreotypes made of Native American chiefs while they crossed the country to meet with US Government officials in Washington, DC. When passing through St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851-52 these chiefs were photographed by photographers Thomas Easterly and John Fitzgibbons. Each portrait was a unique image. Daguerreotypes had no negatives; each photograph was exposed on a silver-nitrate covered copper plate. Daguerreotypes remained a popular method of capturing portraits from 1840 to 1860 when it was replaced with easier and less hazardous methods of negative-positive based photography like wet-plate collodion and albumen. Matted, not cased.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
Daguerreotype
Date made
1851-1852
maker
Easterly, Thomas M.
place made
United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
Physical Description
metal, brass (overall material)
metal, copper (overall material)
glass (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 16.5 cm x 13.5 cm x.5 cm; 6 1/2 in x 5 5/16 in x 3/16 in
ID Number
PG.003974.17
accession number
121824
catalog number
3974.17
subject
Portraits
Men
Native Americans
See more items in
Work and Industry: Photographic History
Photography
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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